Military Sea Hawkers

The military chapter of the official booster club of the Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks get shutout in Steeltown

First, a show of hands from how many Seahawks fans truly expected a win this week. No, put your hands back down, the question wasn’t who wanted a win. If you’ve been a Seahawks fan long enough, you’ve likely become conditioned to expect a loss when the team travels to the East Coast. At the very least, you know to not be surprised by one.

Long airplane rides, early start times—or perhaps both—seemingly have plagued the team for years. However, even while fans may have anticipated a loss, they didn’t expect a shutout. Even the Kansas City Chiefs managed to score once in a 48-3 blowout.

With no offensive highlights to show for in a 24-0 loss, what exactly were Seahawks fans left with in this game? The answer: one sack by Atari Bigby, a goal-line stand on the first series of the game and a sack by Chris Clemons—in that order. The sack by Clemons came just before the end of the third quarter, so at least there was a little something to cheer for in the second half.

During the post-game press conference, head coach Pete Carroll shouldered a lot of the blame.

“I take the responsibility. I gotta help our coaches and help our guys feel better so they can play faster and play more aggressively,” Carroll said.

With quarterback Tarvaris Jackson passing for a mere 159 yards and getting sacked five times—three times on one drive alone—the question of Carroll’s commitment to the quarterback came up. Carroll nodded and responded in the affirmative that he was committed to the quarterback, but qualified his response by saying he would look at the tape.

“This does not feel like a ‘one-guy’ situation. It feels like it’s a lot of guys contributing, and the coaches are included—and myself. We’ve gotta figure out better ways to move the football with the guys that we have at the stage we’re at.”

As poorly as the Seahawks moved the ball, Jackson was at least somewhat efficient going 20-of-29. However, with only 31 yards rushing on 13 carries, the Steelers defense was keyed in on the passing game especially after taking an early two-touchdown lead.

“We just didn’t show up as an offense. We didn’t play well at all. We couldn’t get a rhythm,” Jackson said. “I don’t think we had a drive with over six plays—or five or six plays—in a row. It’s all about rhythm.”

Not pointing at any one player or group of players in particular, Jackson did say that everyone needed to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they are doing everything they can to help the team win.

“We’re all in this together. We’re going to keep grinding,” Jackson said. “We got a lot of changes we have to make, obviously. We didn’t score a point—period, and that’s just embarrassing.”

Of course it’s also frustrating for fans when the team gets shut out. However, if you dig really hard to find your eternal “Seahawktomist” inside of you, you can look at the standings and see the team is only one game out of first place.

The San Francisco 49ers looked like they were going to take down the Dallas Cowboys easily when they jumped out to a 14-0 lead. They even led by 10 in the fourth quarter before Tony Romo redeemed himself from last week’s fourth-quarter performance to tie the game up late. A deep 77-yard pass and a field goal was all it took for the win in overtime.

Keeping the current standings in mind, just go ahead and pull out that schedule card of yours and look at Week 3. The Seahawks are back home and playing the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, the same Cardinals team that just squeaked past the Carolina Panthers last week and then choked away a win after it was up 21-13 in the fourth quarter against the Redskins.

Some Seahawks fans may be upset because it’s difficult when one comes to the realization that their team won’t be winning a Super Bowl. However, it’s probably good to go ahead and get that thought out of your head early on anyway. If you’ve watched Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady play this year, you know that barring any injuries those are guys who will likely have their team competing for another Lombardi Trophy come February.

However, if you still feel that strongly that the Seahawks can win the Super Bowl, there’s no better time than now to go to Vegas and place your bet. The only other team in the league right now that will probably have lower odds is the Chiefs.